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“Fr. Charles Cummings’s revised Monastic Practices is an insider’s guide to life in the monastic world. Although specifically directed at monastics, it offers secular readers much worthy of pondering value. Drawing on his lifetime in a Trappist abbey, Fr. Charles offers a richly austere, very beautiful volume. For many topics, Fr. Charles provides both the historical practice and the ways in which it has been modified more recently, assisting someone living in community to understand some of the more mystifying customs, or a secular reader to comprehend something of the way monks adapt to the changing world. The meditative bits that appear scattered throughout—discussion of silence, the quality of the cell, and the presence of death—add to the overall balance between instruction and reflection, history and now, individual and community that make Monastic Practices a distinctive and valuable contribution to the body of monastic literature.” —Marjory Lange Western Oregon University monastic wisdom series Marsha Dutton, General Editor Advisory Board Michael Casey, ocso Terrence Kardong, osb Lawrence S. Cunningham Kathleen Norris Patrick Hart, ocso Miriam Pollard, ocso Robert Heller Bonnie Thurston monastic wisdom series: number forty-seven Monastic Practices Charles Cummings, ocso Revised Edition Cistercian Publications www.cistercianpublications.org LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices 161 Grosvenor Street Athens, Ohio 54701 www.cistercianpublications.org Illustrations by M. Bernarda Seferovich, OCist. Unless otherwise indicated, excerpts from the documents of the Second Vatican Council are taken from the Vatican website. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, foot- notes, and cross references used in this work are taken from the New Amer- ican Bible, revised edition, © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. © 2015 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights re- served. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cummings, Charles, 1940– Monastic practices / by Charles Cummings, OCSO. — Second Edition. pages cm. — (Monastic wisdom series ; number forty-seven) ISBN 978-0-87907-050-2 — ISBN 978-0-87907-484-5 (ebook) 1. Monastic and religious life. 2. Spiritual life—Catholic Church. I. Title. BX2435.C83 2015 248.8'94—dc23 2015024983 CONTENTS Introduction vii 1. Sacred Reading 1 2. Liturgical Prayer 20 3. Work 38 4. Customs 62 5. Monastic Courtesy 79 6. Silence 91 7. Short Prayers 103 8. Self-Discipline 117 9. Watching 134 10. Community and Communication 146 11. The Monastic Cell 160 12. Stability 170 13. From Death to Life 188 v INTRODUCTION The traditional practices of the monastic life are directly con- nected with our search for God. These practices—sacred reading, liturgical prayer, work, silence, asceticism, and many others—are concrete ways and means by which we in monasteries seek God. In and through these practices we express our spiritual values and daily live out our vowed commitment to God. Our monastic life in its outward practices as well as its inward spirit is totally oriented toward seeking and finding God. Sometimes it may not be completely obvious, especially for newcomers to monastic life, that a particular practice such as ris- ing long before dawn and keeping watch can foster and facilitate our journey toward God. Or, if the value of such a practice did seem clear to us at an earlier stage of our monastic life, it may no longer seem important now that we have reached greater maturity in our vocation. In either case, the practice loses its meaning for us and becomes merely another exercise to put up with, a lifeless formality to go through each day. The practice has lost its original power, and we get nothing out of it any more. vii viii Monastic Practices The question, as the Lord put it to the prophet Ezekiel, is “Son of man, can these bones come back to life?” (Ezek 37:3).1 The following chapters will explore common monastic prac- tices in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading con- temporary monks and nuns to a deeper encounter with God in faith, hope, and love. These traditional practices will be viable, in the sense of being at the service of life, if we know how to use them and how to give ourselves to them until they lead us to God. This is a “how to” book more than a theological or histor- ical study of monastic customs. It is not only newcomers who need to appreciate the traditional monastic practices. The rest of us can discover still deeper levels of meaning, for example, in our interactions with others in the community or in the time we spend alone in our cell or in the common rituals we perform as we move through the monastic schedule. For monks and nuns, the ordinary things we do every day constitute the normal path to God. In the art of living the monastic life, we are always begin- ners, beginning anew our search for God, because there is always more of the triune, living God to be discovered. External monastic practices are one thing—their inner spirit is another. The structural framework of observances exists to give support and form to the vivifying spirit of love. That spirit is in the way we do what we do and in our motivation for doing it. In focusing on external monastic practices, we run the danger of a kind of rubricism, as if following the rubrics of monastic living could magically unite us to God. What does unite each of us to God is the living faith, hope, and love that animate our heart and behavior. Monastic practices express those interior attitudes but cannot sub- stitute for them. When the external practices are in harmony with interior attitudes of faith and love, our daily life is transformed, and the kingdom of God becomes a reality in our midst. Reflections on the meaning and implementation of monas- tic practices are always provisional, always open to further in- sights. Although my own monastic experience is limited to the Trappist-Cistercian tradition, I have tried to situate these practices 1 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture translations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition. Introduction ix in the common Western monastic tradition of Saint Benedict, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and the Bible, with some references to other traditions as well. My reflections are made with a view to both monks and nuns, for all the practices are common to monasteries of women and men. In fact, some of these practices are common to all forms of consecrated life and receive special emphasis even in non- monastic communities. A selective, prudent use of these practices also might benefit persons outside the monastery who wish to follow traditional Christian methods of spiritual deepening. This revised edition of Monastic Practices updates, corrects, and slightly expands the first edition. I wish to thank very much the many editors and advisors, almost too many to mention by name, who have helped me in this task. I especially want to thank Sr. M. Bernarda Seferovich, OCist., for her thoughtful and clever drawings, which have joyfully introduced and illuminated each chapter of both editions of this book. Appreciative responses from readers of the first edition prompted me to improve the book as best I can, without detriment to its original purpose. Finally, it should be noted that opinions expressed here are the personal interpretations of the author and not the authorized statements of any monastic family. SACRED READING The monastic style of life that evolved in the West after the Des- ert Fathers and Saint Benedict stands on three foundation stones. Liturgical prayer, manual work, and sacred reading, that is, lectio divina, constitute the threefold footing of our daily monastic life. Jesus Christ himself is the ultimate foundation stone, and these three practices connect us to him. The personal stability of each monk or nun in the monastic vocation depends in part on this triadic foundation. If we attempt to build the whole structure of our monastic life on just one foot of the tripod, or even on two, it may all come crashing down some stormy day. A triple footing provides a foundation that is firm against storms and trials. The numerous other practices of monastic life cluster around liturgical prayer, work, and sacred reading like stringers and trusses that tie a structure together and make it an integral whole. Our study of monastic practices begins with a consideration of each of the three principal supports, starting with sacred reading, because it may be the most problematic. Afterward, we will go on to liturgical prayer and then to monastic work. 1 2 Monastic Practices Sacred Reading as Encounter Although there are special challenges to be faced in our postlit- erate age, we all have the capability and the grace to become masters in the art of sacred reading. Reading has lost its savor for many in our culture and has been replaced by audiovisual media of communication.

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